“Are you facing more risks with your personal loans? (The Star)” plus 3 more |
- Are you facing more risks with your personal loans? (The Star)
- Board to vote on designating county a 'recovery zone' to net $13.5M in loans (Journal Gazette & Times-Courier)
- Obama eyes repaid gov't bank loans for jobs help (Washington Post)
- Recasting Exotic Loans Will Lead to Mortgage Crisis as Large as Subprime in 2010 (PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance)
| Are you facing more risks with your personal loans? (The Star) Posted: 08 Dec 2009 03:35 PM PST PETALING JAYA: The notion that personal loans are getting riskier with longer tenures amid the current economic climate does not hold water, as much depends on the size of the loan as well as the credit assessment and underwriting of individual banks, analysts said. They generally concur that banks have an internal credit assessment system to ensure that the risk of default is minimised. Banks would have to look at an individuals cash-flow position as well as his ability to pay the loan, an analyst from a foreign research house said. A senior analyst with an investment bank feels that with the improving economy and uptick in consumer spending next year, consumers would be able to service their loans on time, hence resulting in lower loan defaults or non-performing loans. RAM Rating Services Bhd head of financial institution ratings, Promod Dass, reckons the credit risk of personal loans ultimately depends on the credit underwriting of each bank. More importantly, he said, the loans should be priced to sufficiently absorb potential defaults. HSBC Bank Malaysia Bhd general manager for personal financial services Lim Eng Seong said the repayment period had to be viewed relative to the size of the loan. It cannot be too short, otherwise it will be unreasonable for customers. And it wouldnt be sensible for banks from a risk perspective if the tenure is too long, especially given that the size of personal loans is usually much smaller than other types of loans, he said in an email reply. OCBC Bank (M) Bhd head of credit cards and unsecured lending, Muzir Kassim, said the bank practised a prudent approach to lending, including personal loans, and that through risk-based pricing and scoring models, loan risks were kept to an acceptable minimum level. Comparing personal loans and credit cards, Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Bhd head of consumer transaction banking, Choong Wai Hong, said: Personal lending products target specific needs such as big purchases, debt consolidation and cashflow funding. With longer tenures, the burden of paying the interest rate is heavier but the monthly instalment payments instill discipline and predictability in paying down the loan. Credit-card lending, however, may be deceivingly shorter in tenure but the interest rate may be higher, and customers may only elect to pay the minimum 5%. On the outlook for personal loans next year, RAMs Dass said the rating agency saw greater competition among banks in that segment, particularly loans to government staff via direct salary deductions. The intense competition, he added, may drive down yields. Given its current low base, Dass said the personal loan segment would grow at least 20% next year in line with RAMs expectations for gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 4.9% in 2010. However, personal loans would remain a small portion of the banking systems total loans, he said. As at end-September 2009, they accounted for 4.65% of the banking industrys loans. Meanwhile, the RM50 service tax to be imposed on credit cards next year would likely motivate customers to consolidate their card balances and reduce the number of credit cards they carry, according to StanChart Malaysias Choong. They could do this either through personal lending or transfer the balance to their remaining cards, but it would be cheaper to consolidate through personal lending, he added. OCBCs Muzir said more people would spend in a systematic and structured way via the effective use of personal loans. Consumers appreciate that personal loans provide a cost-effective alternative to other financial tools such as credit cards and overdrafts, representing another choice for managing spending and credit prudently, he noted. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| Posted: 07 Dec 2009 10:38 PM PST Board to vote on designating county a 'recovery zone' to net $13.5M in loans
CHARLESTON — Coles County could have about $13.5 million in low-interest loans available for county governments and businesses through a bond issue program tied to federal stimulus legislation.
Add your comments
Not already registered? Then click Here.
JG-TC.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted are not posted to the site immediately. They go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed. Comments posted on Saturday may not be reviewed until Sunday afternoon. In order to keep the page a set width, long lines (mostly long links) will be chopped. Try putting spaces in your links or consider using tinyurl.com to make a smaller link that you can include. We will never edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct. No comment may contain: * Potentially libelous statements; such as accusing somebody of a crime, defamation of character, or statements that can harm somebody's reputation. If you have any questions, please contact our moderator. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| Obama eyes repaid gov't bank loans for jobs help (Washington Post) Posted: 07 Dec 2009 06:43 PM PST Obama, who will address the subject in a speech on Tuesday, has been struggling to trim the nation's painfully high unemployment rate, now at 10 percent, just below a quarter-century high. He said there may be "selective approaches" for tapping into the money that was to go for propping up seriously ailing financial institutions. The administration and its allies on Capitol Hill would have to get around a provision of the 2008 bailout legislation that requires money that is paid back by banks or left over to be used exclusively for reducing the federal deficit. With a tough election year coming up, Obama and congressional Democrats want badly to do something about jobs. Turning a highly unpopular financial rescue program, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), into a potentially popular one with new jobs attached has strong political appeal - although Republican critics have depicted such an approach as a backdoor way of putting a second economic stimulus package into force. The administration now estimates that the TARP will cost about $200 billion less than the $341 billion the White House estimated in August. The lower estimate reflects faster repayments by big banks and less spending on some of the rescue programs as the financial sector recovered from its freefall more quickly than anticipated. "TARP has turned out to be much cheaper than we had expected, although not cheap," Obama told reporters at the White House. "It means that some of that money can be devoted to deficit reduction. And the question is: Are there selective approaches that are consistent with the original goals of TARP - for example, making sure that small businesses are still getting lending - that would be appropriate in accelerating job growth?" "And I will be addressing that tomorrow," Obama said. It was the clearest signal yet that the White House might be planning to argue that helping unlock credit for small businesses is in line with the original goals of the bank bailout bill and thus a valid expenditure of federal money - with more job creation a byproduct. The bailout program, which had an initial price tag of $700 billion, was passed by Congress in October 2008 as the nation's financial system teetered on the brink of collapse. It was followed this year by a less narrowly focused $787 billion stimulus package sponsored by Obama and passed by Congress that includes funds for a wide variety of projects. While the TARP bailout was intended to calm markets, it has become for many people a symbol of a supposed government bias for Wall Street at the expense of Main Street. It has contributed to a widespread anti-Washington mood that is troubling to incumbents of both parties. Many of the nation's largest Wall Street institutions have roared back to health with the government's helping hand, even as the rest of the economy continues to suffer and shed jobs. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| Posted: 08 Dec 2009 10:00 AM PST FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Dec. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Many exotic Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs) will recast in 2010, leading to a mortgage crisis as large as subprime in the New Year, according to the Consumer Mortgage Audit Center. "We've spoken to Florida attorneys who sit at the forefront of the U.S. foreclosure crisis and have learned that 53 percent expect recasting ARMs to present a mortgage crisis as large as subprime and 61 percent expect to work on more loan modifications in 2010 than they did in 2009," said Sylvia Alayon, vice president of operations for the Consumer Mortgage Audit Center. "The New Year is going to hold very rude awakenings for some homeowners, but there are things you can do to analyze your situation and get help if you need it." Option ARMs enable borrowers to make monthly payments that are interest and principal, interest only or just part of the interest due. When the majority of ARMs begin to recast in early 2010, housing bills will inflate and many homeowners will be forced to repay the negative amortized balances they've accumulated over months and years of paying less than their full monthly payments of both interest and principal. Negative amortization occurs when the amount of interest due on a loan becomes higher than the amount of the actual loan, itself. "Recasting will undoubtedly lead to another wave of foreclosures as payments begin to double and triple. When principal balances go up and house values continue to plummet, refinancing will no longer be an option for homeowners in negative amortization," continued Alayon. "To date, only a few Option ARMs in existence have been modified, but thousands more homeowners will rush to modify their loans as they slip closer to negative amortization. Acting now to modify your exotic mortgage may save you from negative amortization and, eventually, foreclosure." Should you be concerned that your home loan payment is about to increase, or you simply can not afford to make your payments and are facing foreclosure, here are a few steps the Consumer Mortgage Audit Center recommends:
"Depending on each homeowner's unique financial situation, we've seen everything from lenders modifying mortgages lower to make them affordable again to Fannie Mae allowing homeowners facing foreclosure to shift from homeownership to home rental," said Alayon. "Options are out there, but you have to do some work to get to them." About the poll The Consumer Mortgage Audit Center sponsored a survey of Florida Bar Association attorneys from Nov. 3 through Nov. 6, 2009. Of the attorneys surveyed, 150 shared their opinions, which were used in the above release. Responding attorneys specialize in real estate (31.4 percent), general practice (20.6 percent), civil law (20.6 percent), and foreclosure defense (19.4 percent). The Consumer Mortgage Audit Center (CMAC; www.truthinaudits.com) is a due diligence and consulting company specializing in the field of mortgage forensic research and analysis. CMAC boasts a highly specialized team of mortgage experts who are also members of the American College of Forensic Examiners Institute and represent a combined experience of over 80 years in mortgage finance and law. Media Contacts: Shelley Pfaendler / Charlotte Maumus KCSA Strategic Communications 212-896-1248 / 212-896-1269 spfaendler@kcsa.com / cmaumus@kcsa.com This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Add Images to any RSS Feed To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 comments:
Post a Comment